I Was Not Cut Out for Bedrest

After five days on my back in a hospital bed, I arrived back at home, eager for more..bedrest.  Well, at least I am home, where I can get some actual sleep.  When I was in the hospital, I was getting poked and prodded every hour to make sure that I was still breathing, and I really appreciate not having to deal with that right now.  

The surgery I had, which involved cutting fat from my belly and reconstructing breasts from the tissue, requires that I pretty much put my feet up and rest.  The instructions specifically say "NO HOUSEWORK", and I intended to follow the directions.  I've slept as much as I can, and tried not to do too much.

Except my mind goes a little wonky after all the pain meds and I find myself thinking that maybe I could do some laundry.  When I tell myself no, that I am supposed to not do any housework, my brain can't just take that. 

What about that piece of paper on the floor over there? 

No means no, I tell my brain. 

Come on, it's just one piece of paper.  You can do it.  Nobody will notice!

No. 

Now I am eyeing that piece of paper, however, thinking that maybe I could pick it up and throw it away.  Paper doesn't weigh anything, I reason.  I reach for the paper, and that's when the reason for the bedrest and the no housework rule shows up.  Pain.  Stitches pull with movement, and despite Patrick Swayze's Roadhouse assertion that 'pain don't hurt', I assure you most confidently that it does. 

So I sit in the recliner and push it back and snooze.  At least until the next time my brain has a bright idea.   

The Brain Plays Tricks

I found this door one day while I was walking around.  I want to say that it spoke to me, but that's not the right word. 

The door looked at me. 

No, it didn't really look at me.  I'm not having a psychotic break.  The brain does this trick where it decides to interpret some things as faces or other things.  It does that to me all the time.  Wallpaper is especially tricky.  I can't be the only one whose brain does that, since the phenomenon has a name. Most people won't admit to it, however.  Either that, or maybe their brains don't see the same thing that I do.

I often wonder why the brain does that.  It doesn't really seem an efficient way of survival. Seems to me that it would make more sense to be looking at what is actually there, in case it's something that wants to kill you.  Also? Some of the older legends and ghost stories that we hear originated with some poor soul looking into the forest and seeing a face looking back at him?  Maybe that guy's brain was matrixing, and there wasn't really anything there. 

That would certainly explain some of the ghost stories I've heard.  Like that Bloody Mary tale, where kids go into a room in the dark, say her name, and then scream like crazy and run.  That certainly sounds like a story where someone's brain played a practical joke.

Brains are weird like that. 

It's Going to be Freakin' Cold

At some point this morning, a cold front is going to show up here. There will be rain and LOTS of wind. This is what we call a Blue Norther, and they really aren't very fun. The wind is going to throw the temperatures here into freezing, and we won't see them rise too much for the rest of the week--a hard freeze. The weatherman even said the S-word--snow. This made the entire city collectively lose their minds in giddy anticipation. It made me cringe.

I hate this roller-coaster weather. If it were just cold and stayed that way, I would get acclimated to it and be just fine. Instead, my brain has just spent the past couple of days enjoying beautiful sunny weather in the 70s. My cats were just in the backyard eating random lizards and just lazing about in their contentedness, while my son tried to pedal his bike around our cul de sac. I actually contemplated putting on shorts this weekend, completely ignoring that the sheer whiteness of my legs can be seen from space. That's how great the weather was yesterday.

My brain is going to have a difficult time adjusting to the sudden plunge in temperature, and is going to be completely useless. I'll be in such a fog that I won't get anything done. Nobody is going to want to get out of bed because it's cold, and who can blame them? Can we cancel school/work on account of hibernation? It really is going to be sleep-in weather tomorrow. I don't want to get out of bed while it's cold outside, either!!